Hollis C45 LX Wing Question

[Ankush Mittal]

I am buying a Hollis BP + Harness and deciding which wing to buy. Rather than buy two separate ones I want to buy one which can resolve my immediate requirement and hence I shortlisted C45 LX.

I will be doing either recreational diving in mostly warm water or I am now starting my Tech Diving journey but in warm water itself.

If I purchase a C45 LX wing will it make my dives with a single 12 Ltr Al tank unstable as I feel it may be too big since Hollis markets it as a twin set wing and most reviews I have read on Apeks Wings for Twin Sets say that the big wing will curl around the entire tank and mess up my balance completely.

I came across this article on SB itself, Hollis C-45 or C-60 wing help please but its now quite old and wanted to see if someone has more recent experience with using C45 a single mount wing. According to them, it should be no problem whatsoever.

I will be using my lift bag as redundant buoyancy device, so that is not a problem.

I can always buy the S38 later for single tank diving but didn't want to spend on two separate wings for now.

Any inputs would help.

Cheers

 

[runsongas]

assuming you have a jacket or back inflate already, i would plan on using the c45 for doubles and keep diving the regular bc single tank till you get a dedicated singles wing. even with retractors, the c45 is going to be wider due to the middle spacing area for doubles which will have it be flappier than a skinny tropical wing. it may also be harder to fully vent the wing with the retractors in use if the internal bladder gets partially folded.

 

[divezonescuba]

The dive rite rec model wing is sold for and can be used for both single or double back mount applications. It can also be bought with a single bladder and later upgraded to a redundant bladder with a kit or you can buy it with the redundant bladder.

I actually also use it for sidemount although that was frowned upon earlier. Nowadays, some manufacturers are selling adapters to prevent tacoing when using a conventional wing and plate. In reality, you can rig the rec model itself so that no tacoing occurs.

 

[sigxbill]

I dive a single with my doubles wing all the time - with no problem. I don’t like the way the taco looks in pictures, and it takes a slight bit of extra effort to transfer gas from one side to the other, but otherwise I never feel unstable . It’s a good idea to coordinate your purchases with your tech instructor, so maybe shop for that first if you don’t have one. You may also wish to consider this wing UTD Sport Double Tank Back Mount Wing (Donut) - 40lbs/18kg · UTD Scuba Diving. It’s 5 pounds less lift so will be theoretically smaller on a single than the Hollis, which might be better for when you are using it on a single. And most tech divers don’t need more than 40 pounds anyway in my humble opinion . Enjoy your journey

 

[Ankush Mittal]

I will definitely be getting a smaller wing for single tank recreational diving eventually.

The reason I wanted to replace my existing recreational BCD with the single tank wing so that I can use one system for all my diving and never have to carry two systems and in addition always have the comfort of getting used to one system rather than switching back and forth.

UTD seems like an interesting option, but I want to stick to brands which have at least some basic presence in South East Asia.

Thanks for the input guys.